Optimizing Shape Complementarity Enables the Discovery of Potent Tricyclic BCL6 Inhibitors

To identify new chemical series with enhanced binding affinity to the BTB domain of B-cell lymphoma 6 protein, we targeted a subpocket adjacent to Val18. With no opportunities for strong polar interactions, we focused on attaining close shape complementarity by ring fusion onto our quinolinone lead series. Following exploration of different sized rings, we identified a conformationally restricted core which optimally filled the available space, leading to potent BCL6 inhibitors. Through X-ray structure-guided design, combined with efficient synthetic chemistry to make the resulting novel core structures, a >300-fold improvement in activity was obtained by the addition of seven heavy atoms.

1 Overall quality at a glance i ○ The following experimental techniques were used to determine the structure:

X-RAY DIFFRACTION
The reported resolution of this entry is 1.81 Å.
Percentile scores (ranging between 0-100) for global validation metrics of the entry are shown in the following graphic. The table shows the number of entries on which the scores are based. The table below summarises the geometric issues observed across the polymeric chains and their fit to the electron density. The red, orange, yellow and green segments of the lower bar indicate the fraction of residues that contain outliers for >=3, 2, 1 and 0 types of geometric quality criteria respectively. A grey segment represents the fraction of residues that are not modelled. The numeric value for each fraction is indicated below the corresponding segment, with a dot representing fractions <=5% The upper red bar (where present) indicates the fraction of residues that have poor fit to the electron density. The numeric value is given above the bar.

Mol Chain Length
Quality of chain 1 A 144 2 Entry composition i ○ There are 5 unique types of molecules in this entry. The entry contains 1209 atoms, of which 0 are hydrogens and 0 are deuteriums.
In the tables below, the ZeroOcc column contains the number of atoms modelled with zero occupancy, the AltConf column contains the number of residues with at least one atom in alternate conformation and the Trace column contains the number of residues modelled with at most 2 atoms.
• Molecule 1 is a protein called B-cell lymphoma 6 protein. 3 Residue-property plots i ○ These plots are drawn for all protein, RNA, DNA and oligosaccharide chains in the entry. The first graphic for a chain summarises the proportions of the various outlier classes displayed in the second graphic. The second graphic shows the sequence view annotated by issues in geometry and electron density. Residues are color-coded according to the number of geometric quality criteria for which they contain at least one outlier: green = 0, yellow = 1, orange = 2 and red = 3 or more. A red dot above a residue indicates a poor fit to the electron density (RSRZ > 2). Stretches of 2 or more consecutive residues without any outlier are shown as a green connector. Residues present in the sample, but not in the model, are shown in grey.

Mol Chain Residues
• Molecule 1: B-cell lymphoma 6 protein Chain A: There are no bond angle outliers.
There are no chirality outliers.
There are no planarity outliers. The all-atom clashscore is defined as the number of clashes found per 1000 atoms (including hydrogen atoms). The all-atom clashscore for this structure is 0.

Too-close contacts
All (1) close contacts within the same asymmetric unit are listed below, sorted by their clash magnitude. There are no symmetry-related clashes.

Protein backbone i ○
In the following table, the Percentiles column shows the percent Ramachandran outliers of the chain as a percentile score with respect to all X-ray entries followed by that with respect to entries of similar resolution.
The Analysed column shows the number of residues for which the backbone conformation was analysed, and the total number of residues. There are no Ramachandran outliers to report.

Protein sidechains i ○
In the following table, the Percentiles column shows the percent sidechain outliers of the chain as a percentile score with respect to all X-ray entries followed by that with respect to entries of similar resolution.
The Analysed column shows the number of residues for which the sidechain conformation was analysed, and the total number of residues.

RNA i ○
There are no RNA molecules in this entry.

Non-standard residues in protein, DNA, RNA chains i ○
There are no non-standard protein/DNA/RNA residues in this entry.

Carbohydrates i ○
There are no monosaccharides in this entry.

5.6
Ligand geometry i ○ 4 ligands are modelled in this entry.
There are no bond length outliers.
There are no bond angle outliers.
There are no chirality outliers.
There are no torsion outliers.
There are no ring outliers.
No monomer is involved in short contacts.
The following is a two-dimensional graphical depiction of Mogul quality analysis of bond lengths, bond angles, torsion angles, and ring geometry for all instances of the Ligand of Interest. In addition, ligands with molecular weight > 250 and outliers as shown on the validation Tables will also be included. For torsion angles, if less then 5% of the Mogul distribution of torsion angles is within 10 degrees of the torsion angle in question, then that torsion angle is considered an outlier. Any bond that is central to one or more torsion angles identified as an outlier by Mogul will be highlighted in the graph. For rings, the root-mean-square deviation (RMSD) between the ring in question and similar rings identified by Mogul is calculated over all ring torsion angles. If the average RMSD is greater than 60 degrees and the minimal RMSD between the ring in question and any Mogul-identified rings is also greater than 60 degrees, then that ring is considered an outlier. The outliers are highlighted in purple. The color gray indicates Mogul did not find sufficient equivalents in the CSD to analyse the geometry.

Bond lengths Bond angles
Torsions Rings

Other polymers i ○
There are no such residues in this entry.

Polymer linkage issues i ○
There are no chain breaks in this entry. 6 Fit of model and data i ○ 6.1 Protein, DNA and RNA chains i ○ In the following table, the column labelled '#RSRZ> 2' contains the number (and percentage) of RSRZ outliers, followed by percent RSRZ outliers for the chain as percentile scores relative to all X-ray entries and entries of similar resolution. The OWAB column contains the minimum, median, 95 th percentile and maximum values of the occupancy-weighted average B-factor per residue. The column labelled 'Q< 0.9' lists the number of (and percentage) of residues with an average occupancy less than 0.9. 6.2 Non-standard residues in protein, DNA, RNA chains i ○ There are no non-standard protein/DNA/RNA residues in this entry.

Carbohydrates i ○
There are no monosaccharides in this entry.

Ligands i ○
In the following table, the Atoms column lists the number of modelled atoms in the group and the number defined in the chemical component dictionary. The B-factors column lists the minimum, median, 95 th percentile and maximum values of B factors of atoms in the group. The column labelled 'Q< 0.9' lists the number of atoms with occupancy less than 0.9.